I looked away as I answered. “I asked her to marry me.”
She made a small incoherent sound. “I’m sorry, Daimbert,” she said after a moment. “No one should be refused twice in one summer.”
I thought of telling her she could solve that problem for me but knew better. “And I don’t love the queen. I never really loved her. I only love you.”
She laughed and pushed me away. “Of course you love your queen. You have for nearly twenty years. Now hurry back to the castle and get ready for church service.”
But she was wrong, I told myself. I didn’t love the queen.
The cathedral filled up rapidly. The visiting bishops had left with their entourages after yesterday’s enthronement, but almost everyone else returned for the bishop’s inaugural sermon.
After changing my clothes and drinking several cups of strong tea back at the castle, I felt almost coherent again. Among the people coming in was a woman dressed in an elegant dress of dark lilac silk. A few strands of nut-brown hair emerged from under a chaste white wimple. I slipped into the pew next to her. “You look like a castellan’s lady, if not a princess,” I whispered with a smile. “I scarcely recognized you as my beloved embroideress.”
The dark lilac of the dress brought out the color of her eyes, even in the dimness of the cathedral’s interior. “Of course,” she replied. “It’s not for nothing that I make my living by sewing. If I’m really going to go to your prince’s coronation, I have to look suitably regal. What’s will happen here?”
“You’ll see,” I said, wondering myself. “Joachim’s not just the new bishop, in some ways he’s now the most powerful person in two kingdoms.”
The organ’s tune changed to a deep and solemn processional march, and the cathedral priests filed in, sober in black and white, led by their new dean. When they had assembled around the altar, Joachim appeared, walking by himself across the mosaic Tree of Life.
As he took his place at the lectern in front, resplendent in the scarlet robes that Theodora had embroidered for him, he appeared almost cheerful. No one who did not know him as well as I did would have noticed, for his lips did not smile, and his dark eyes were as unwavering and compelling as always. But his voice, as he read from the Bible and then proceeded to speak of the love and brotherhood that should bind mankind together under God, had none of the anguish in it I had heard so clearly at the old bishop’s funeral. Rather, he spoke with both assurance and humility.
“As this is my inaugural sermon,” he said, putting down his Bible, “I would like to address to you, my people, a special request.” This, I thought, was where his plan began. I remembered clearly now: he had said he would lure the wizard out of hiding through an idea planted in his first sermon.
But Joachim’s next words were entirely unexpected. “For too long there has been at best an uneasy truce, if not indeed outright enmity, between the Church and organized wizardry. While I am bishop of the kingdoms of Yurt and Caelrhon, I would like to see this stop.”
Theodora looked at me from under raised brows, and I thought I heard an uneasy shuffling from where the cathedral priests were sitting.
“There has been talk, groundless talk, of the wizards’ school seeking to infiltrate all aspects of life in the western kingdoms, of abrogating the authority of lords and even of kings.” I gave the royal princes of Caelrhon a quick glance to see how they were taking it. It was their turn to shift uncomfortably in the pew.
“This talk was started by someone who is an enemy of the people of our two kingdoms! Unfortunately it has been picked up, both by some laymen who may be in the congregation today and by some officers within the Church. As of today, I want this foolishness to cease.” Joachim looked at all of us with burning eyes, and his voice rose clear in the silent cathedral. “Priests and wizards need to work together, beginning at once.”
This was starting to sound dangerously like heresy to me. I wondered what the bishop of the great City would say when he heard about it; relations between his cathedral and the nearby wizards’ school had always been strained. I had been hoping Joachim would be bishop for forty more years; at this rate, he might not last forty more days.
“These rumors against wizards were started as a smokescreen,” Joachim continued, “to try to force a wedge between institutionalized wizardry and organized religion, between the wizards and the people they serve with their magic.” I did my best not to look like a wizard. “Once this wedge was in place, the enemy of all our people, inspired by the devil, was planning to attack the Church! He thought he could do so safely, because the powers of magic, that otherwise would have come forward to serve Christianity, would already have been driven away. The ultimate attack on the Church is still to come.”
There was no doubt that Joachim had his audience’s entire attention. “I do not know for certain when this attack will arrive but it will be soon. Therefore we must be ready, all of us, churchmen, wizards, lords, and townspeople, to oppose it together. I have already spoken to the Royal Wizard of Yurt, who has pledged his support.” He caught my eye for one second. “But I also have a task for the dukes and counts and for the castellans and manorial lords who are here.
“Yesterday, on the day that I was elected, you all laid your swords on the altar in symbol of your pledged service to the Church. I ask you now to fulfill that pledge! Next week I must be away from the city for a few days, to attend the coming of age of the young king of Yurt. The royal family of Caelrhon will also be there. I now fear that someone will take advantage of our absence to stage an assault on this church. You will all remember with horror the outrageous attack at the time of the old bishop’s funeral, when one brave wizard was able to save us.” He did not try to catch my eye this time, which was just as well. “This time the attack may be even worse, and that wizard will be in Yurt, with me, and unable to come to the rescue.
“Therefore! I want all of you to be ready, priests with your prayers, magicians with your spells, and the lords of men with your swords. I do not know if there will be another monster as we had before, or even a flock of monsters. But with the help of God, the attack will be averted.”
He stepped then from behind the lectern to bless the congregation, as calmly as though he had not just offered the olive-branch of peace to institutionalized wizardry. As the congregation rose, rather shakily, for the final hymn, I thought he had managed well something I had had trouble with myself, even in talking to him: he had issued a warning against a magical attack without warning against magic.
He disappeared out the side door of the church as the organ notes died away, and the congregation, buzzing with rapid conversation, poured out the great front doors into the muddle of the construction site. Now that I had heard his plan, I did not like it at all. I found myself glancing up at the sky as Theodora and I passed through the doors and wondered if I would ever again be able to come out of an important service in the cathedral without looking for monsters.
“You told me the bishop’s first sermon would be highly interesting,” said Theodora, looking at me as though not sure whether to smile, “and you were certainly right. He spoke as though-as though he didn’t care what anyone would think, either the people here or the rest of the Church.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think he does,” I answered absently. “He answers to God and to his conscience, and it may not even occur to him that most people also answer to the opinions of others.” I took a deep breath. “Come with me,” I said. “I have to talk to him.”
PART EIGHT — COMING OF AGE
I
The narrow street behind the cathedral was full of priests. They looked up in surprise as we approached, then resumed their conversations behind us. I tried to decide if they were making negative comments about Joachim, but as far as I could tell they were wondering what they could do to keep his respect.